It’s the opening month of the new year, and that means that NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in Charlotte is preparing to enshrine its newest class of inductees later this month. When the installation ceremony comes on January 20, five legends of stock car racing – three of them team owners – will join their peers in the hall, a process that’s taken place since the facility locked in its first class in 2010. The 2017 class consists of Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, Raymond Parks, Benny Parsons and Mark Martin.

Austin Dillon (L) with his grandfather, Richard Childress, at Daytona in 2014. Photo by HHP/Harold Hinson for Chevy Racing.

Childress was a journeyman driver with some solid finishes before he hung up his helmet in 1981 and not long thereafter, hooked up with a guy named Dale Earnhardt. Partnered with Childress, Earnhardt won six season titles and 67 races between 1984 and 2000. But aside from Earnhardt, Childress’s drivers have given him another six championships, which propelled him to being the first car owner to win all three of NASCAR’s major national titles. He maintains his racing shops in Welcome, North Carolina.

If anything, Hendrick’s ownership star glows even more brightly than that of Childress. A Virginia native and auto-retailing magnate, Hendrick started out in NASCAR by founding All Star Racing in 1984, with Geoff Bodine as driver, the team that would soon expand into Hendrick Motorsports. His teams have scored an amazing 240 wins in 3,552 starts, a total that also encompasses seven NASCAR championships with Jimmie Johnson, four with Jeff Gordon and one with Terry Labonte. The very best in NASCAR, from Darrell Waltrip to the late Tim Richmond, have also been among Hendrick’s array of top-level drivers.

Raymond Parks was NASCAR’s first superstar owner, who made a fortune in Atlanta through real estate, liquor sales and vending machines. He paired up with the legendary bootlegging mechanic Red Vogt and put together the team that won the first NASCAR title for Modifieds in 1948, and placed second in the initial Strictly Stock crown the following year, both with driver Red Byron. Parks was a friend and business associate of NASCAR founder Bill France, as well. He died in 2010.

Benny Parsons came out of Wilkes County, North Carolina to win the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup title in storybook fashion. He also scored top-10 finishes in more than half his career starts. Parsons gained even more fame and audience fandom after he stepped out of the cockpit and became a color commentator on NASCAR racing during its phenomenal years of growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Parsons died in 2007.

If you start a discussion on the best NASCAR driver to have never won a season championship, we can all but guarantee that Mark Martin of Batesville, Arkansas, will be at the top of the list. Martin did score 40 wins in NASCAR’s top series but his career was a lot more than that. He was a terror on the short tracks of the Midwest before moving south, and his record of 49 wins in NASCAR’s Xfinity series stood for 14 years. While still active, he was named to NASCAR’s list of its 50 greatest drivers.

Two specialty enshrinements will also take place. H. Clay Earles will be named the Landmark Award winner for his decades of work running the historic Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, and Benny Phillips, former sports editor of the High Point Enterprise in North Carolina, will be inducted as the Squier-Hall Award winner for news media members.

Alec Wisemansays:

January 13, 2017 10:05 am

If the NASCAR HOF doesn’t implement a procedure to limit the yearly number of honorees, they risk denigrating the institution with unworthy members. At the current pace, it will only take 3 or 4 more years to enshrine all who are worthy. If the HOF doesn’t set limits at that point, some undeserving, albeit good and talented people, will get in. They should remember that the potential pool of NASCAR honorees is a fraction of other HOF’s, such as baseball or college football.

ptsloc8trsays:

January 13, 2017 4:08 pm

Will Garnersays:

January 14, 2017 3:48 pm

In 1989 I had the distinct honor to sit at a table and tell racing tales with Mark Martin. It was an event at a local Ford dealer billed to have Bill Elliot there to sign autographs. Well lots of folks showed up but Bill was a no show. At the back of the room sat Mark Martin at a small table. No one, and I mean absolutely no one was at the table to meet him. Well I simply went back and sat awhile and had a great conversation with Mark. From that point on I was a rock solid Mark Martin fan. The race on that weekend was at “The Rock” in Rockingham, NC. Best little 1.17 mile track on the circuit. it was a shame that it got tangled up with the crowd from Charlotte and lost both dates. The track is still there, been in and out of bankruptcy, and is now surrounded by solar power farms. Great memories from Spring of 1989 through February 2004 – the last race. I feel pains when having to drive by the track on US 1/NC 177.

WILEYsays:

January 16, 2017 4:47 pm

Bill Crispsays:

January 17, 2017 8:23 pm

I am not big on owners getting into sports halls of fame. The other guy’s right- NASCAR needs to cut back on the annual number of inductees. I guess it really doesn’t matter- at the current rate of decline NASCAR won’t be around many more years. The loss of Earnhart, the way the association has carried Jr., the inclusion of Toyota, the obvious fixing of selected races, and the dominance of a very few teams has combined to bring down a once entertaining sport. Good work Brian France.